Deploy an Azure Application Using Visual Studio Team Services

In today’s Ask the Admin, I will walk you through deploying an app in Azure using an Azure Resource Manager (ARM) template and Visual Studio Team Services (VSTS).

If you have been following my series of articles on VSTS, you will know that it can be useful for sysadmins who are working with DevOps teams that deploy apps to Microsoft Azure. For more information on VSTS, see What Is Visual Studio Team Services? on the Petri IT Knowledgebase.

The instructions that follow show you how to upload an ARM template to VSTS. It can be your own or one downloaded from the Azure quickstart templates gallery hosted on GitHub. You will deploy the template to Azure without leaving VSTS.

Upload an ARM Template to VSTS

The first step is to get an ARM template into VSTS. You might have created a template already from scratch or you can upload an existing template. This is what I will show you how to do below:

Log into your VSTS site using the URL provided at sign up. It should look something like this: myproject.visualstudio.com.

On the VSTS homepage under Projects, click the project where you want to upload the template.

In the list of options across the top of VSTS, click Code and select Files from the menu.

On the left of the VSTS, you will see the name of the current branch under the project name. If you only have one branch, you will see Master. If you have more than one branch, select the branch that you would like to use by clicking on the arrow to the right of the branch name. Select the required branch from the list. You can also create a new branch if needed.